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Thursday, May 24, 2012

If you've been wondering where I am, I've been working at my new job and getting ready to move in three weeks! I'm moving into a rental home with two other roommates and I cannot wait to get started on decorating and such! For now, I'm focusing on my room... and this is where I need your help! Here's the feeling that I want for my room:

Uniform, but not too matchy.

I always love the bohemian feel but I'm not sure I can pull it off.

Love a mix of vintage and modern

Color scheme: yellows, gray, teal

Overall comfy-ness, but also somewhere where I can get work done.

This is what I have so far:

This awesome vintage yellow chair that I got for freeeeee. Everyone keeps telling me that it's ugly-- please tell me I'm not the only one that thinks it's awesome?!

This cute desk from my mom's classroom (remember it in this post?) that I will hopefully redo to look shabby-chic.

I also have a wooden bed (but don't have a picture of it yet). I hope to paint it a bright fun color like the mustard yellow below or teal.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Last week I did this post on Crafting a Green World and I thought it was too cute not to share on here too! If you're looking for some decor that screams summer, this project is perfect for you!

What You Will Need:

1. A water bottle

2. Scissors

3. Sand of some sort. I used sand that you would put in a sandbox, but you can use whatever you have on hand.

4. Rocks. I used filler rocks (I don't know if that's their official title, but that's what I call them)-- you can find a whole bag of filler rocks at the dollar store!

5. A candle. I used a flameless LED candle, but you could also use a real tea-light candle.

How To Do It:

1. Cut off the top of your bottle. I cut off a little bit more than half way.

2. Fill your bottle with sand.

3. Put your candle into the sand. If you're using a candle with a flame, put more sand in your bottle so that it pushes the candle above the plastic. (Side note: I haven't used this with a real candle before, so please be careful-- you don't want your candle to melt the plastic or catch it on fire.)

4. Add your rocks.

You're finished! Doesn't it say "summer" to you? I can definitely see this on a patio table or even at beach/summer wedding! Since I don't have either of those lovely things, I put mine by my aqua lantern and I'm loving it!

Friday, May 11, 2012

Hello friends! It's Friday!! I'm in Florida for the weekend celebrating Mother's Day with my fabulous and amazing mommy! I put this project up on Crafting a Green World and I wanted to share it with you guys too!

Instead of giving people roses, I love giving plants instead. They last longer and seem more worth it.. at least to me. Anyone out there agree with me? Anyway, if you plan on buying a plant for your Mom for Mother's Day, consider adding this cute plant "flag" for a little something special!

What You Will Need:

1. A stick

2. Paper. I used sheet music that I got a thrift store. (The same sheet music that I used for my Mother's Day Brooch tutorial.)

3. Scissors

4. Hot glue/hot glue gun

5. A marker. I used a black sharpie so it would show up on the sheet music.

How To Do It:

1. Go out into your yard and find a straight(ish) stick. This will become the pole of your "flag." Place your stick in your plant to see if you need to trim it a bit. Mine was a little bit tall so I had to cut it.

2. Cut a square out of your paper--this will become your flag. If you want to do the heart shape, though, cut a heart shape out of your paper.

3. With your marker or sharpie, write "Happy Mother's Day" on your flag. You can write "I love you" or "You're the best" as well.. it's up to you!

4. Hot glue your flag to your stick. For the regular flag, you will wrap it around your stick and hot glue it like so:

For the heart flag, though, you can just put one dot of hot glue on the stick and then press it to the center of your paper heart like this:

5. Put it in your plant!

Wasn't that so simple? It's such a simple project with a huge impact! It's the little details that matter the most, right?

You could also use this same idea and apply it to different occasions-- birthdays, baby showers, wedding showers, graduations, etc. What would you use it for?

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Do you ever receive these ugly magnets (pictured below) in the mail? Sorry, Dish Network... it's ugly. The other magnet came in a set but I can't remember what it was from-- it isn't necessarily ugly, but I wanted to make it awesome!

When thinking about how I could give a makeover to these ugly magnets in an eco-friendly way for Crafting a Green World, I came across these paint chips in my craft box and I thought "Paint Chip Magnets"... why, yes, that has a great ring to it!

What You Will Need:

1. Paint chips

2. Scissors

3. Hot glue/hot glue gun

4. Magazine

How To Do It:

1. First, I cut off the top part of the paint chips (I still needed to keep the tops for future reference).

2. I decided I was going to make a sun design on the Direct TV magnet. I hot glued a grey paint chip to the magnet, and then cut out and glued a yellow half-circle onto it like so:

3. Then, I added rays to the sunshine. I used two different shades of yellow just to give it some pizazz.

4. That was too plain for me, so I decided to write "You are my sunshine..." on the sun. It's one of my favorite songs and always makes me smile!

For the smaller square magnet, I cut to size and hot glued a yellow paint chip to it. After that, I cut out letters from a magazine to form the words "To Do" and then hot glued them onto the paint chip. That's it! Here they are! Aren't they cute? Now I don't mind having them on the front of my fridge :)

Friday, May 4, 2012

Are you ready for Mother's Day? Last week on Crafting a Green World I made this recycled paper Mother's Day brooch and I wanted to share it with you guys! I plan on giving it to my mom to wear on Mother's Day. Through the wonderful Pinterest, I came across two awesome tutorials that I kind of meshed into one-- one from Bargain Bound on how to make Sheet Music Flowers and one from Oh Happy Day on how to make DIY Paper Flower Corsages. So, with all that said.. here we go!

What You Will Need:

1. Sheet music or other recycled paper. I used some sheet music that I found at a thrift store, but you could also use newspaper, an old book, or magazine pages.

2. Tape

3. Scissors

4. Hot glue/ hot glue gun

5. One button.

6. A brooch pin. Someone gave me a small bag of them (I love free stuff!!!!), but you can also find these at your local craft store.

7. A scrap piece of paper for a pattern for your petals. I used a paint chip!

How To Do It:

1. Follow Bargain Bound's tutorial on how to make the petals of the flower. I pretty much followed exactly what she said, so I don't feel like it would be fair to repeat the same steps on here! Show her some support and visit her site to see all of the steps :) This is what your flower should look like once you're done hot gluing the petals together:

2. Decide which button you want to hot glue to the middle of your flower. My mom's favorite color is yellow, so I chose yellow buttons. I tried a little yellow button first:

I liked the larger button, though, so this is what mine looked like:

3. Turn your flower over and glue the brooch pin to the middle of your flower like so:

Now your brooch is ready to wear!

It's so simple to make-- I'm planning on making one for my grandmothers as well! What do you guys think? I love your feedback so let me know what you think on my Facebook page or in the comment section below! :)

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

When I was in high school (about 5 years ago), my parents went through a tough time financially. My mom is a forever optimist... she's one of those people. On really rough days, we/she would always see what she called "bunnies of hope." She would tell us (my brother, Dad, and I) that they were God's reminders that He had everything under control and that everything would be okay. It was pretty crazy because we would always see one on the roughest days. However, you can probably imagine that my 16 and 17 year old self rolled my eyes at my mom every time she talked about "the bunnies of hope."

Well, God has a sense of humor. Let me back up a little bit, though. It's been a year since I've graduated college. The world puts these expectations in your head that when you graduate, you will:

Get married to your boyfriend that you found in college.

All your best friends from college will be your bridesmaids.

You'll get a great job because you have a degree.

Besides having best friends that could potentially be bridesmaids in the future, I've completed none of those things on the "list." I expected to have a great job by now because I have a Bachelor's degree... but, it hasn't happened. I have a part time job and some side jobs, but not a full-time, career-type job.

Over the past month, I've had two interviews, both of which I really thought were going to work out. I worked myself up over them and got excited, only to be super, super disappointed. Guess what has been showing up over this past year, and especially this month? Yup. Bunnies of hope. Just some proof for you:

Um, yes, THREE bunnies. These pictures aren't from this month, but these bunnies constantly show up. Last week (the hardest week for me), I saw another bunny on the side of the road (after finding out I didn't get the job) and several others throughout the week in the most unexpected places.

As soon as one door closed though, the Lord opened several others.. and for that, I am so, so thankful. I received two offers for paid internships over the summer the day I found out I didn't get the job that I thought I really wanted. A few days later, when I was talking to my parents on the phone about which summer internship I accepted, a bunny literally came into the yard where I was standing. Okay, God, I get it! Something that I once rolled my eyes at, I am so thankful for now-- His reminders that He does have everything under control.

So.. what about you? Do you have any stories where God reminded you that He has everything under control?

Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

As a side note: If you've been wondering where I am, why I don't post much anymore,
etc... that's where I am right now. I don't want to apologize for not
posting, because life is life and I feel like as bloggers we apologize
too much for allowing ourselves to live rather than blog
(therefore, why are we apologizing??)-- sorry, that was a side rant.
Anyway, I'm not quitting, but I've decided that I don't want to force myself to blog.. because then it's not fun anymore. I'm super excited to share the summer I have ahead of me, though! I'm going to be a summer intern in Student Ministry at a local church, and I am so pumped!!!